Literature and science may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, but reading can have an impact on even the most scientific of brains. A new film series reveals the reading habits of seven Cambridge scientists and peeks inside the covers of the books that have played a major role in their lives.
Literature and science may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, but reading can have an impact on even the most scientific of brains. A new film series reveals the reading habits of seven Cambridge scientists and peeks inside the covers of the books that have played a major role in their lives.
探花直播book gave me a real insight into what it鈥檚 like for individuals living with addiction
Amy Milton
We may think that scientists inhabit a precisely focused world, far away from the messy realm of stories and the imagination, but a new film series, Novel Thoughts, from the 探花直播 of Cambridge shows that there is a bridge between the two.
Reading fiction helps scientists to see the bigger picture and be reminded of the complex richness of human experience. Novels can show the real human stories behind the science, or trigger a desire in a young reader to change lives through scientific discovery. They can open up new worlds, or encourage a different approach to familiar tasks.
For psychologist Dr Amy Milton, reading Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby during her PhD had a profound effect on her work. Its bleak portrayal of the downward spiral into addiction spurred her on to complete her thesis on cocaine addiction and to deepen her research into preventing relapse.
鈥 探花直播book gave me a real insight into what it鈥檚 like for individuals living with addiction. It summed up how addiction, and the consequences of it, has not always been taken seriously as a disease by psychiatry,鈥 she said.
As a teenager, Professor Carol Brayne鈥檚 love of Charles Dickens and George Eliot opened her eyes to a world in which social inequality had a powerful impact on people鈥檚 health and wellbeing. She vowed to become a doctor, and is now a leading figure in public health research at Cambridge. Her voracious reading as a young adult helped her understand the importance of seeing the bigger picture, and of finding health interventions that take account of the complexities of people鈥檚 lives.
For some, a book came along at just the right time. Professor Clare Bryant, of the Department of Zoology, read A S Byatt鈥檚 Possession at a crucial point in her early career. Its page-turning portrayal of two historians racing to uncover hidden truths reminded her of the excitement of scientific discovery, and persuaded her not to turn her back on her own research career.
Books can have a resonance throughout a scientific lifetime.听Dr Juliet Foster can see that the themes explored in 探花直播Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, which she read as a PhD student, still have echoes in her current social psychology research into public understandings of mental illness.
Dr Sarah Dillon, now in the Faculty of English at Cambridge, was the first to explore some of these ideas in a project she developed at the 探花直播 of St Andrews. Much has been written about science鈥檚 influence on literature 鈥 from Frankenstein to the futuristic worlds of science fiction 鈥 but she wanted to find out if the influence happened in the other direction. Did literature have an impact on the world of science?
Dillon joined forces with social scientist Christine Knight, and astronomer turned creative writer Pippa Goldschmidt to investigate What Scientists Read.
鈥淲hat we found was that reading literature and 鈥榥on-science鈥 books did have an influence on their work in quite surprising ways,鈥 said Dillon. 鈥淭here were lots of examples of scientists being more open to qualitative research methodologies because of valuing the knowledge that literature, even though it鈥檚 not 鈥榯rue鈥, gives you.鈥
探花直播Novel Thoughts film series begins on 8 June with physicist Dr Paul Coxon sharing his childhood reading about the quirky adventures of a boy inventor in the novel SOS Bobomobile. New films will be released every Monday and Friday until 3 July and scientists worldwide are being encouraged to tweet their own inspirational book using #novelthoughts.
Look out for:
Professor Clare Bryant from the听Department of Veterinary Medicine听discussing听笔辞蝉蝉别蝉蝉颈辞苍 by AS Byatt听on 12 June.
Karen Yu from the Department of Engineering discussing听Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas on 15 June.
Professor Simon Redfern from the Department of Earth Sciences discussing听Jamila by Chinghiz Aitmatov on 19 June.
Dr Juliet Foster from the Department of Psychology discussing听 探花直播Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer on 22 June.
Professor Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health,听discussing听Middlemarch by George Eliot on 29 June.
Dr Amy Milton from the Department of Psychology discussing听Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Junior on 3 July.
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